The outgoing president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City turned some heads this week when he declared that the nation’s largest banks and recipients of federal bailout funds should be re-branded as government-sponsored enterprises and their lending activities should be curtailed accordingly. Thomas Hoenig reportedly told...
A recent survey by the New York-based Reputation Institute found that Freddie Mac is the least reputable company to do business with, while fellow GSE Fannie Mae was named the third least reputable company, but an expert advised that it’s not the end of the world for publicity-challenged companies. The private consulting firm conducted...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency last week approved some updates to Fannie Mae’s corporate performance goals which the company will use to determine executive compensation. Fannie’s newly approved 2011 corporate goals will be the barometer by which performance will be measured for the purposes of the first installment of the...
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle is making progress in light of its ongoing struggles in the mortgage market but significant challenges remain, according to a recent ratings announcement by Fitch Ratings. Last week, Fitch announced it has assigned long-term and short-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) to the...
The Department of Housing and Urban Affairs has declared April Fair Housing Month as it launched a nationwide media campaign to commemorate the Fair Housing Act. The Fair Housing Act was enacted 43 years ago this April to protect minorities and other groups from housing discrimination. The FHAct prohibits...
The decline in high-cost conforming loan limits set to occur later this year will affect a small fraction of the more than 300,000 counties in the U.S., according to an analysis released last week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. However, concerns remain that the non-agency sector will not adequately serve...
Non-agency mortgage-backed securities investors do not have enough confidence to allow for accelerated reform of the government-sponsored enterprises, according to Michael Berman, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “The key is the private markets have spoken that they don’t have confidence,” Berman said last week in...
Hoping to capitalize on the growing market for special servicing, Walter Investment Management announced last week that it plans to acquire Green Tree Credit Solutions. Walter said it will purchase the special servicer for $1.065 billion and Walter will have to drop its status as a real-estate investment trust. Green Tree currently services...
The Home Affordable Modification Program continues to be criticized for the pace of activity, but one segment of the market has embraced HAMP: servicers with loans in portfolio. While HAMP accounted for 27.0 percent of all mods completed by major banks and thrifts in the fourth quarter of 2010, HAMP accounted for 50.2 percent of...
In what may be an omen of a deeper slide of volume in the months to come, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw their issuance of new mortgage-backed securities drop 21.4 percent in the first quarter of the year from the prior period, the latest data from the Inside Mortgage Finance GSE MarketScope show...[includes one full-page chart]
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